Mauritian Customs and Wine

Hello,

I'm moving to Mauritius from Belgium in September and the moving company has told me that the Customs in Port Louis will not let me take more than 2 bottles of wine in with my shipment of belongings.  Surely people move to Mauritius all the time and bring their wine with them.  I have around 80 bottles which technically given the timing, i could drink between now and September, but i'd prefer to move them with my belongings.

Does anyon know how customs, duties, etc work?

Thanks

Ronan

PS - and no...no need for any volunteers to help me drink them prior to moving...!

I dont think they will allow you to bring that many bottles of alcohol. I had a passion of collecting miniture bottles of alcohol from every country I visited. When I shifted from Dubai to Mauritius, my shipment had around 30 minitures bottles of acohol. As each bottle was less then 15 to 20ML and considering that these are soveniers and not for consumption the customs allowed me to carry it . Do not take a chance of carrying so many bottles of alochol\wine. You can buy all kinds of wine locally.

Thanks Terence and say I declare 24 bottles what would be the duty I need to pay? Or do I simply not have that option?

Thanks

Hi Ronan,
When I moved to Mauritius I was asked by the customs if there were any bottles of alcool in my trunks (malles). Of course I didn't, I was coming from Saudi Arabia! LOL
But I assume that if they asked such a question, it means you're not allowed to.
Arlette

If you understand French, there was a discussion on that topic on the French forum:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=31724

The thread goes a bit O.T. , depending on the poster,  but the comments are informative

Speaking of wine....Mauritian folks, do you know if I can purchase Malbec wine there? It's a red from Argentina.

Thanks,
JayBird

Hi RedJayBird,

Yes you can find Malbec here.:)

I recommand the following wine shops:

Eastern Trading
20 sur Vin

You can become a member and you get 8 to 10% discount and you also get invited once in a while to wine tasting events ;-). Really worth it!

You can have a look at www.thewinestore.mu

I am myself a big fan of wine and you can find lots of South African wine here which are very affordable.

Melissa

Hi Ronan,
Not sure if you had closure with your enquiry. There is no problem bringing your wine in with your container providing you declare how many bottles you have and are willing to pay the duty on it. When we came to Mauritius (Dec 2008) from S.Africa we brought 16 bottles of wine and paid Rs2200 duty on it.  We would have brought more only we too were busy drinking it away until we found out we could bring it in! 

Regards, Kaybee & Norman

Dear Kaybee - thanks a lot that is good to know... the movers said to also put a few bottles in various different boxes and also declare some too.  So we'll do a combination of both i think!

Thanks
Ronan

MelissaL thank you so much! My Aunt has recently gotten me hooked on wines and Malbec being our favorite of the bunch I wanted to be sure I could get it for when she comes to visit!

-Red

You are most welcomed!:D

Hi Ronan,

Well, I know some people who works in the freight forwarding and customs clearing in Mauritius. If you still need the info, I can put you in touch.

Take care!
Fred

Dear fellow expatriates,
I am looking for wine tasting options in Mauritius - is possible in the Flacq area. Can anyone help ?
Kind Regards

Susanne

hi,
i may have a different idea of customs in here, well one option is to confirm value, while another one might be sharing a few bottles with some known persons, would it be a custom tradition, i am not really aware of..

cheers,
islander.

Hi,
I found this link which gives the import duty on wine as Rs126 per litre
and Rs600 per litre for champagne:

http://mcci.org/photos/exciseact10.pdf

So if you have some expensive bottles of wine just bring them in and pay the duty.

Andrew